319. His Apps Reached 100 Million Users: Here's Why Your Customers Don't Stay | Colin Hodge

A million users in three months. Then the hardest three months of his life.

Colin Hodge, author of Outrageous Startup Growth, walked away from Microsoft and spent the next decade learning how to build a truly sustainable business — reaching a total of 100 million users in his career. But in between came an App Store ban, a major lawsuit, a co-founder's burnout, and a 3 AM breakdown that put his resilience to the test.

In this episode, you will learn:

Why understanding people beats better technologyHow to build empathy without becoming “soft”The Method Mindset technique for thinking like your customersHow to grow through adversity and burnoutWhy removing all friction from your product can backfireThe bias that shows up in nearly every negotiationHow to keep your work human in the age of AI

Topics discussed:

(00:00) Introduction

(00:51) Tech Isn’t Everything

(02:24) Why He Left Microsoft

(09:23) The Taboo Founder Trait

(11:02) The Method Mindset Technique

(15:38) When Your People Burn Out

(19:54) Empathy Without Going Soft